South Dakota Outlaws & Scofflaws

Last month I posted about the History & Heritage Book club that featured The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I hadn't had a chance to (re)read that one before the meeting, but I decided that I would read the next book and attend the February meeting. The book for February is South Dakota Outlaws & Scofflaws by John Andrews, Bernie Hunhoff, Roger Holtzman and Katie Hunhoff, published by South Dakota Magazine.  This is a slim book, only 140 pages long, and written in a very accessible style. This is not a heavy duty history tome and reads quite a bit like a series of magazine articles.

Since I am not a South Dakota native, many of these stories were completely new to me. The old west culture, cattle rustling, saloons and ranching are not things you hear about much in Alabama. Due to the HBO show Deadwood from a few years ago, I was familiar with a few of the characters- Al Swearengen, Seth Bullock, Calamity Jane, and Charlie Utter. While I expected that HBO took some liberties (duh) it was interesting to get an introduction to the true story for many of them.  The book also covers quite a few figures from East River (for those not in the know, South Dakota is divided neatly in half by the Missouri River; culture and geography is definitely different on either side.)

The book is very readable. The tone and writing level is that of a magazine, without a lot of heavy facts or footnotes.  This is a great introduction to this aspect of South Dakota history, but I don't feel like I've learned more than a passing bit about each entry. The easy readability is also the book's downfall, in that each chapter seems to exist independently of the rest of the book. For example, Al Swearengen is mentioned in more than one chapter, but each time is a written as a whole new introduction. This would work great in a series of magazine articles, or if I were picking and choosing chapters, but for reading it straight through it was a bit awkward.

I'm interested to see what the other book club members thought, and to see what other book suggestions they may have to follow up on some of the topics in Outlaws & Scofflaws. In particular, I found Jack Sully and Poker Alice  interesting, and will have to see if I can find other books about the two of them.

This book is not available on Amazon, and I had to add the entry on Goodreads myself, but if you're interested you can pick up a copy through the South Dakota Magazine website.
 

Fresh veggies in the winter? wha...?

• We got our first co-op veggie basket on Saturday. I'm so thrilled with the value of this thing! Look at all that yummy food! (All that's left are the cucumbers, radishes, a couple tomatoes and the green beans.)
• I've developed quite the Songza habit lately. I turn it on to wake up the kids and leave it on until lunch. I just swapped over to some Zydeco for Mardi Gras.
• I went back to the gym to actually work out last night. I've been going twice a week for my volunteer shift, but working out had kinda gotten lost. I only made it two miles, but it felt gooooooood. And this morning, slightly painful. I'm planning to pick back up with the Couch to 2K program, but Zombies, Run! looks pretty awesome too.
• Winter storm warning predicts a foot or more of snow Saturday night and Sunday. I am over it.
• Lots of battles this week because certain two year olds do not understand that some tvs don't actually have Diego (Netflix) and some do. Made extra confusing because sometimes the tvs that don't have Diego, do have Diego, because it just happens to be on.
• I started a pinboard for the Princess's new room at the new house. Feel free to make suggestions. And yes, I saw this, but I'm aiming for realistic here! It's a rental! Exclamation point!

What I Read This Week:

• South Dakota Outlaws and Scofflaws. For the History Book Club. This is super quick and interesting, but a wee bit disjointed. More on this when I finish.
• Infinite West: Travels in South Dakota by Fraser Harrison. Only about a quarter of the way done.
• Waking Up Married by Mira Lynn Kelly. I didn't mean to start this one, but I have it on my phone and I was trapped in the boys' bed, futilely trying to get someone to go to sleep. It is not impressive and I may not finish.
• What I didn't read this week? Code Name Verity and Days of Blood & Starlight . I felt guilty keeping them out past their due dates (ok, like 3 days late) and both were Inter-Library Loans, so I returned them. I'll have to re-request them later. Plus, I have so many books that aren't late that will be late, so something had to go back.

Wordless Wednesday.

Three things to love about Pierre, South Dakota

1. This morning the Bug, the Princess and I went to the thrift store. Tuesday is the day all the new stuff appears, so it's a fairly crowded day in a very small building. Add a loud 3 year old and a stroller and you can imagine how much they love me, but we still go every week.  Today I had given the Bug his very own five dollar bill with which to buy his toy. Predictibly, he lost it. I mentioned it at the check out and she took my name and number, but really, it was $5 and I expected it to be gone.   I got a call, less than an hour later, that someone turned it in. Yes, this could happen anywhere, but it seems like such a small town thing to me.

2. When we first moved here I worried about the tiny library. One of my first posts was about the library and how  less technologically advanced it was than my old one. As time has gone on, I've come to love the little library. I can get most of the books I want off their shelves, and if they don't have it there is always Inter Library Loan. They forgive all fees if you return books on Wednesday and Sunday, there's no limit to the number of books you can check out, and all books are 30 day loans. With only one or two exceptions, the librarians are all very friendly.  But here's why I really love it- on Sunday, Mike dropped me off at the front door so I could run in some returns and pick up my holds. I get a LOT of holds. I was standing at the desk putting my returns in the bin, when one of my favorite librarians looked up and saw me. She said, "Oh! I have something for you!" and propped against the phone, right there on the front desk, was a little note attached to a card that they had found in one of my returns. The amazing part is not that they would return it to me (though really, it was an unremarkable Christmas card), but that I hadn't told them my name. They didn't KNOW I'd be in on Sunday unless they'd noticed I'm there every Sunday.  It wasn't with my holds that I hadn't even asked for yet.  When we go to story time, which is not as often as you'd think, the children's librarian remembers ALL the kids names, including mine. This personal touch is exactly what I want in a library.

3. We recently had some work done on our car.  We only own one car, our other vehicle being a company truck. We are allowed to ride in the company truck, but it only seats four. So we had no car that the entire family could fit into. The day that it was returned to us was a particularly busy one for Mike and he was having a hard time getting away from work, let alone finding someone to take him to pick it up. When I was talking to the woman on the phone, she offered to bring it to me. "Oh, I'm headed that way anyway, I'll just have my partner follow me. No big deal!" No extra charge. My car showed up at my door within the hour.

Random Friday- Seven Years.

The Pirate, The Texan, and the General. (The Pirate, TRISH's husband Scott, and General Ulysses S. Grant, who refused to give his sword to the Pirate.)

It's not about bloggers and ARCs, but it IS about bloggers and publisher's ads, which is kinda similar.

Have you all seen Mark Bittman's 101 Simple Summer Salads? Yum.

I finished Charlaine Harris's Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 9)last night. Finally, a series that I'm caught up on! Kinda makes me wanna try to catch up on some others.

Steven Tyler fell and broke his shoulder here in South Dakota while performing at the Sturgis Rally. It's looking like we won't be going back up for an evening of rally fun. I find that I'm not so disappointed.

And speaking of South Dakota- today I've lived in South Dakota for 7 years! Everyone always asks if I miss Alabama, and I do, but South Dakota really does feel like home to me now. This part of the state is really beautiful and the wide open spaces are growing on me. This doesn't mean that I don't occasionally think to myself, "omg, I live in SOUTH DAKOTA!!"

Second Verse, same as the first!

Snow day again!

The boys are still in bed, the tv is still off, there is no traffic, I have coffee and I don't have to go to work. This is a perfect morning.

My office is closed for the day, for only the second full snow day since I started working there 6.5 years ago. The interstate is closed. There is a no travel advisory. Most of the town is closed- all the schools, all the city and county offices, the Y, Meals on Wheels. Mike went in to see how bad it was at his office- sucks to be the boss- but doesn't plan to stay long. My little neighborhood seems pretty sheltered. The backyard has some interesting drifts and the wind occasionally howls, but overall there isn't a lot of snow on the ground here. The neighbor's roof is bare in spots, as is our front porch. The ground is nicely leveled out- no little hills or dips or STEPS, so I wouldn't go for a walk or anything, but it doesn't look so bad. It's hard to tell because the wind covers it right up, but it doesn't look like any of my neighbors have left home either.

I'm hoping for a nice relaxing day. A little sewing, a little reading, a little blogging. I'm almost done with Bloom by Elizabeth Scott and I still need to review Creation in Death by JD Robb. I need to get to reading on A Mango Shaped Space for the Reading Round Robin. I need to log on to the library's webpage and renew my books, I suspect they were due this week sometime.

And I think I'll wear my pajamas all day.

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Thursday Thirteen #?

I haven't done a Thursday Thirteen in months, I thought today would be a good day for it.

13 Things about the last 6 years...

1. 6 years ago yesterday I left Alabama after living there my entire life.
   
2. 6 years ago today I drove into South Dakota for the first time. My imagined idea of South Dakota (western SD at least) turned out to be wrong.
   
3. It was then (as it is now) the middle of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, and there were a LOT of bikes. I was a bit nervous.
4. In January 2003, I was hired at my current employer, as a teller.
   
5. In August 2004, we bought our first house.
6. The next week we got a dog, Scout.
   
7. On October 2, 2004, Mike and I got married. It was a very small wedding, just ourselves and five witnesses. It was perfect.
   
8. In January 2005, while 5 months pregnant, we took a dream vacation to Cabo San Lucas.
   
9. On April 7, 2005 the Pirate was born.
   
10. That same year I turned 30.
11. In October 2007 I started this blog.
12. On April 10, 2008, the Bug was born.
13. Yesterday, on my anniversary of leaving my home and everyone I knew behind, I told a friend how much I didn't regret it for one minute. My life here is wonderful, more than I could have ever imagined.

For more Thursday Thirteens, go to www.thursdaythirteen.com

Happy Anniversary!

Five years ago today I drove into South Dakota to be with my husband. We didn't get married until October 2004, but I think today is a more important anniversary in many ways. It was quite a leap of faith (and courage, if I do say so myself) to pack up and leave Alabama and drive here. (For the record, a 1400 mile drive in 100 degree heat by myself with NO AIR CONDITIONING!) I had never been to South Dakota, and my mental image is probably the same as yours (if you've never been here)- flat, windy, cold, and snowing. As it turns out, western South Dakota is quite beautiful. It doesn't snow nearly as much as you'd think and it doesn't last long when it does. Summers are very hot, but not usually humid and there aren't many bugs.

Being in South Dakota is everything I had hoped when I moved here. I haven't regretted moving here for one minute, and not just cause it's pretty, also cause my husband is pretty great himself. Plus, THE MONKEY.

On my one year anniversary of being here I got a tattoo of a camellia- the state flower of Alabama. Until then, I had lived in Alabama my entire life, so I got a tattoo as a goodbye. I'm thinking I need a little tattoo for South Dakota. What I'd like is a little phrase or quote, with a teeny pasque flower (state flower of South Dakota) at the end of it. What do you think?